I’m back! I’ve been on a lovely week long escape to Portugal – Lisbon and Porto to be precise ………… and I loved them both. So I’ll share a little bit about what were the highlights of each.
I’ve been back a couple of weeks actually, but I’ve been a busy bee for a few weeks. Well, not the first week back……..the first week back I was just grumpy! I don’t deal with the first week back from holiday very well, even more so at this time of year. I don’t like cold, damp, wet, an hour less of daylight……..I just want to hibernate. However, I perked up after hearing the first rendition of ‘Jingle Bells’. Yes, that’s right, in Primary School we have to start rehearsing for Christmas at the end of October! And…………I love Christmas. So this week I’ve been Christmasifying, if that’s a word. I’ve baked my Christmas cake, so it’s got over a month to mature as I slowly drown it in brandy, and done a few more things ready for that time of year when I almost spontaneously combust with excitement waiting for the big man in the red suit! Because, this year, as always, I’ve been a good girl, and this year may be the year he brings me a present…….you never know!
I’ve been doing quite a bit of rehearsing too as I’m singing this Christmas. I’ve sung since being small and until around 5 years ago I sung at quite a high level. I couldn’t maintain it though, at that level, and do all the other things I wanted to do in my life, like support my boys in the last few years of high school like I wanted to. The commitment to rehearsal time was just too much. So now I pick and choose what I do and I always get a couple of calls before Christmas to try and drag me out of retirement, so this year I thought, yes, I’ll do a couple of concerts and I’m really quite enjoying it as there is no pressure and singing just makes you feel good, try it in the morning in the shower!
Anyway, I digress, ……… Lisbon, my first stop. I’ll tell you about Porto in a separate post in due course, because there is so much to tell you about each, and I found them completely different to each other. Both excellent for a city break, but for different reasons.
I got a late afternoon flight from Manchester to Lisbon, so it was dark when I got there. The airport is quite close to the city centre so I hopped in a taxi and it was really cheap at around 8 euros. Normally I just make my own way on public transport but it was 9pm, in a city I’ve not been to before, no idea where I was going, so I took the safe option.
When I visit a city I like to get a feel for the city, culture and way of life there, and try and fit in a bit. Even though my red hair, pale skin and freckles blow my cover immediately as the woman from England! A city break is different to a beach holiday. I’ve been to Portugal around five times before but always to the Algarve for a sun holiday. On a city break I prefer not to stay in a fancy hotel. The last thing I want to be, is stuck with a load of British and westerners, complaining and moaning about slow service, how it’s not like at home, and how they’ve ordered a white coffee and they’ve been given an espresso with a drop of milk in, which is not what they wanted. I just find some people so rude and I get really irritated with them…………if you want everything to be like at home……………. and you don’t want it to be Portuguese…………..then stay at home! Simple.
So in true Yorkshire Girl city break style, I just rented an Airbnb apartment from the lovely Lisbon natives Rita and Juan, right in the middle of the old town district of Alfama, which is the moorish quarter. It is the oldest quarter in Lisbon, and second oldest quarter in Europe. It is mainly pedestrian in the very centre, where my apartment was, with very narrow cobbled streets and falling down buildings. It is where a lot of the locals still live and where traditions such as Fado (more on that in a minute) are still practiced. The area was just as I imagined it would be, and I loved it.
I’d heard such mixed reviews about Lisbon. I did not know what to expect. Half of my friends said you’ll love it! The other half said they did not like it, “It’s absolutely filthy, dirty with graffiti everywhere”, they said. But the latter came from my friends, as much as I love them, who are in the five star hotel brigade who still to this day cannot understand why on earth anyone would walk 500 miles across Spain carrying their own luggage when they could have been sipping cocktails by a pool……….I am still an absolute enigma to them and I think I always will be. The half who know me well, got it spot on……..yes Lisbon is filthy in places, it’s falling apart in others, the Alfama is dark, dingy, a little bit seedy and ghetto like……….and it was perfect!
Rita had given me the self check in details and told me not to go to a tourist trap to listen to Fado, “You won’t need to, just open the window, someone will be singing it somewhere!”, she said. What is Fado then? Well, it’s a style of music that has been traced back to at least 1820 in Lisbon. It’s quite mournful and melancholic, often about longing or loss. The lyrics, although I don’t understand them, I’m told are usually about seafaring or a life of poverty. It is of such cultural importance that in 2011, UNESCO added it to their list of items of Intangible Cultural Heritage. It consists of usually just one singer, male or female, accompanied by a Portuguese guitar or viola. So the first thing I did when I got into the apartment was to throw the window open wide and peer out over the washing line down the dark alleyway……………..imagine my delight when I heard this, my background music for the next three nights!
I was also very hungry when I arrived, and fortunately like most places in mainland Europe you can get food late into the evening. I’d spotted a little Tasca at the end of the alley which Rita said was good. A Tasca is a very small restaurant just preparing local dishes…….think checked table cloths and jugs of wine and beer. So I ventured out to stop my tummy rumbling and get my first taste of Portugal. What did I have?…….. I had a speciality called ‘Bacalhau a Bras’. It is a Portuguese dish which is very simple. It is shredded salt cod, onions and thinly chopped potatoes. They are fried and bound together with scrambled eggs and then garnished with parsley and black olives. I recommend it, it’s delicious.
I was tired after travelling, so did not set my alarm, and woke up quite late the next day. The first thing that was needed was some breakfast and I realised I had been in Portugal for 12 hours and had not had a proper Pastel de Nata (Portuguese custard tart), which I adore. The first thing I need to do when I visit anywhere is find out where the nearest good cake shop or pastelaria is, because in Europe you can eat cake for breakfast! And as if by magic, I was just around the corner from ‘Alfama Doce’, the amazing family run local Alfama pastelaria. Not being able to decide between a Pastel de Nata or a sweet brioche type bread with icing sugar and coconut on the top I thought it perfectly acceptable to have both! Amazing! Two cakes and a coffee with milk for 3 euros. So if you are in Alfama ever, definitely seek them out rather than going to one of the big 2 chains who turn Pastel de Natas out by the thousand and charge a fortune to hand them over to you in a fancy box.
Then it was time for a little wander around the Alfama area. Narrow streets, pastel coloured houses tumbling down the hillside and lots of washing drying, Monday must be wash day! I have a thing about old doors too and there were lots of doors which looked like they’d seen many years of comings and goings.
One of the main modes of transport in Lisbon is still its tram system which serves most of the city. There are some newer trams in the more modern areas but the famous Number 28 tram trundles up the main hill at the side of the Alfama district to the miradouro or view point at the top of the hill. It’s a little colourful yellow tram with people packed together like sardines. That’s one thing I noticed about Lisbon, it’s so colourful! Nice bright colours everywhere, you can’t fail to be uplifted by its brightness. And because it’s so hilly, there are miradouros and viewpoints everywhere, all of them giving you a different perspective of the city.
One other thing you will notice as you are wandering around are the Azulejos. These are painted, glazed ceramic tiles found mainly in Portugal and Spain. You can get them in many colours but traditionally they are blue and white. They are found everywhere. Inside and outside, on everything from churches and palaces, to railway stations and ordinary houses. They usually depict a scene from some historical or cultural event, but some of them are just patterned and Arabic in style. They really are pretty.
Then it was on past the Church of Saint Engratia (now the National Pantheon), which looks very impressive from the outside, and down the hill to the Cathedral of Lisbon or Se as it is known. I needed a proper coffee en-route and I can recommend Copenhagen Coffee Lab next to Saint Engratia for a very good cup of coffee.
The cathedral is far from the best I have seen in Europe. It’s worth a quick look but it’s quite plain inside. The best parts are the beautiful rose window and the view over the city from the top of the tower. It’s quite a climb but my fear of heights was overcome by my desire to see the view!
By now I’m hungry…………again…………so it’s time for another local speciality…….Pasteis de Bacalhau or Bolhinos de Bacalhau. They are a salt cod fritter or deep fried ball of potato, salt cod, eggs, parsley and onion. You can have them with or without melted Serra da Estrella cheese in the middle and they are typically eaten as street food, in the hand with a glass of white port accompanying them. So that was lunch sorted, a Bolinho de Bacalhau, with cheese and with port!
Then I thought I’d have a wander down to the tram stop and catch the tram out to the Belem area of the city. On the way I spotted a beautiful piece of street art of a very charismatic looking lady which intrigued me. I like a bit of well done street art. I think this is what some people term grafitti, and yes it’s everywhere, but some of it is beautiful. ‘I wonder who she is?’ I thought. Her name was on the painting…..Argentina Santos….and a quick search revealed that she was a very famous Fado singer, one of the greatest. She was born in 1924 in Lisbon, and also died there aged 95 in 2019. She was the proprietor of one of the most well known fado taverns in Alfama.
So I hopped on the tram and arrived 20 minutes later on the outskirts of Lisbon in Belem. There is not too much there and it’s a nice calming retreat after the hustle and bustle of the city. There is a Gothic Monastery, which I wasn’t bothered about looking at, but there are two buildings or monuments which I had come to see. The first was the Tower of Belem. This is a beautifully carved fort built around 1515 which sits in the estuary of the Tagus River. It was a fortified tower designed to protect Lisbon from attack as well as being the point of arrival and departure for Portugal’s seagoing explorers. It is definitely worth a tram ride.
A short walk away is The Monument of the Discoveries, completed in 1960. This huge and impressive monument, sited at the point where ships set sail to India and the Orient in the Age of Discovery, is shaped like a huge sail, flanked by 33 explorers, navigators, scientists, cartographers, artists, monarchs and missionaries who were prominent in the Portuguese Age of Discovery. The explorer at the head of the sail is Henry the Navigator.
By now I’m tired, but I need food before my bed. After I got off the tram I paid a quick visit to the Ribeira Food Market in Lisbon. It’s ok if you want a quick meal and are too tired to check out where to go. It follows the same principal as a lot of these city food markets. Lots and lots of tables in the middle and a perimeter of food stalls selling food from around the world. It’s ok, but not fantastic compared to some I’ve visited in other cities. It’s been bought out and is being run by Time Out Group. I just found it a bit of a tourist trap, a little less authentic than I would have liked it to be and overpriced for what was on offer.
The following day I was up much earlier, but unfortunately the sun wasn’t. After a lovely sunny first day, day two was very overcast with showers. It was also very cold in my opinion. Yes, 10 degrees warmer than at home, but other than when I’m having a midlife moment, I’m always cold. I hadn’t packed appropriately and just had a denim jacket so my advice if you go at the end of October would be to take some warmer clothes and layers. But, not to worry, after having my obligatory Pastel de Nata for breakfast I spotted Zara………always there when you need it! So I went in wearing a denim jacket and came out warm, with a lovely thick cardigan adorned with pearly bobbles. Another word of advice if you have young male offspring, it’s probably best not to take it too personally when they feel the need to impart their opinion on what you look like. After sending them my daily update and photos, and thinking I looked ok, I was a little crestfallen to learn that I’d been walking around Lisbon all day looking “like a Christmas tree” and being “too old to be wearing a pair of Nike Cortez”. Oh well, not to worry, age is but a number and it’s almost Christmas!
First stop in the newer part of town………the main square or Praca do Comercio. Right on the bank of the river, in front of the harbour, it is the most important square. It has the must have monuments of any large city, a man on a horse, in this case King Joao I, a large triumphal arch and in a less prominent position, Superman, who had he been discovered earlier, would have negated the need for King Joao I and would have saved the city from any of its past plights.
There are also no end of fountains in this part of Lisbon and lots of other quite grand and pretty squares.
Then I spotted rather an interesting contraption which turned out to be the Elevador de Santa Justa. It’s a very nice looking, ornate, iron, Neo-Gothic vertical elevator opened in 1899 to take passengers up to the Chiado district higher up the hill. From the back of it at the top is a metal bridge/walkway. Originally steam powered it was converted to electric at the beginning of the 20th century.
A little bit further along the street I found an interesting looking shop with some rather intriguing looking people crammed inside and outside. The majority were well dressed, elderly men, downing shots of alcohol……..but it was only 11:30am. The shop looked so old, with a little sign above the door that read Ginjinha Sem Rival. It’s basically one of Lisbon’s oldest Ginjinha bars, opened in 1890 and still run by the same family. Here they serve shots of Ginja to old men who have nothing to do all day except drink shots, play cards and talk very loudly, which I thought was quite a good idea for retirement. 😄 I learnt that Ginja is a Portuguese liqueur made by infusing Morello cherries with alcohol and adding sugar, cloves and cinnamon. It’s quite strong at up to 24% ABV normally. It comes served with a cherry in the glass. Now I love cherries, I love a tipple, and I don’t like to feel I’m missing out on something so in I squeezed, looking a bit out of place, for my shot! Now at 1 Euro a shot and being just as delicious as I expected I may have had more than one and I would most definitely tell you to come here on your trip to Lisbon.
By now it is feeding time again, and I had my best meal of all of those I had in Lisbon, and it was so inexpensive. It might not sound that good, but I recommend you visit here and try for yourself as it is so much better than I will make it sound. Lisbon is all about fish! You can smell sardines on the grill everywhere. In addition, all around Lisbon they have small stores completely devoted to tinned and canned fish. Any tinned fish……….tuna, squid, sardines, mackerel, octopus, trout. You name it they have it. It could be in the tin on its own with oil, or it may be infused with something else like a herb, spice, garlic etc. It’s worth going just to admire the tins………they are beautiful and some of them are real works of art. I wouldn’t want to open the tin, I’d have a little cupboard with them all on display! There is one store on the very colourful ‘Pink Street’ in Lisbon called ‘Sol e Pesca’. This one is special, because it has a few tables and chairs inside and you can order the fish to eat there and then. They are also licenced so you can have a nice cold beer or glass of wine with it too.
I might not be making this sound very nice but trust me, it’s not like the tuna that you get in a tin in the UK. I’m not sure what our food canning process does to get rid of the taste of fish but honestly if you have a tin of tuna in Portugal it will be nothing like you have tasted at home in the UK. It will actually taste of tuna! They will serve it to you plain, out of the tin with whatever it is infused with in the tin, or they have a menu where they do a few simple things with the contents of the tin to make it into more of a meal. I went for tinned Octopus with garlic infused olive oil. It came in a dish, garnished with chives and flat leaf parsley and some slices of crusty fresh bread. Quite simply it was delicious!! I also tried some tuna with grilled red peppers and that was almost as good as the Octopus.
After my feeding stop I needed to be at the top of the hill in the Bairro Alto area, but not to worry as the tinned fish shop is not too far from the Bica Funicular. There are a few funiculars in Lisbon but this one is really pretty. It ascends one of Lisbon’s steepest little streets and joins two of the main streets cutting through the city.
I had a little wander back through the streets because I wanted to get to the Alfama area for sunset. The reason being that my legs were tired, and I had read that tucked down one of the backstreets was the Hotel Memmo, which has a rooftop cocktail bar with an outstanding view over the rooftops of the Alfama area. It said it was best to go in the late afternoon, as the sun sets, as it reflects off all the colourful buildings. I found it! It’s quite a posh hotel, but you don’t have to be staying there to have a drink. If you just ask nicely at reception the very nice man behind the desk will show you where to go and get you a table. Because every girl needs a cocktail or two from time to time!
I chose a lovely table overlooking the very small infinity pool, because the swallows were swooping down and drinking out of the pool. It was lovely, I love watching birds. As the light changed, all the buildings and the sky changed colour with tinges of pink and orange. I had a good hour and a half just sat, relaxing, resting and contemplating, and tried a couple of cocktails from the menu with some nibbles. One of the cocktails was a Caipirinha and I think it might just be my new favourite……..I’d definitely put it above the Mojito in my top 5 as I absolutely love the main ingredient Cachaca, made with distilled sugar cane juice. But it might not knock the Mezcal or Tequila Paloma off the top spot because I might like Tequila just a little bit more. Perhaps I just need to try more to make my mind up. 😝 By the time it got dark it was quite cold, so I wandered (well, it might have been more of a little wobble) back to my abode, for my through the window Fado concert as I had to be up early the following morning to check out before my onward journey to Porto.
The following morning it was raining heavily, but my train wasn’t until the afternoon. “What am I going to do?”, I thought. I needed something indoors, a museum or something as it wasn’t just a bit of rain, it was torrential. Had it been sunny I could well have gone back to Memmo for a morning of cocktails and sunbathing. Rita had said I could leave by cabin suitcase in the apartment until the afternoon so I decided to go to ‘The Museu Nacional do Azulejo’ or in English, The National Tile Museum. That sounds so boring you might be thinking………but it wasn’t, it was really good. It is housed in the Madre de Deus Convent, founded in 1509 and has displays of Azulejo tiles dating from the 15th century to the present day. The setting itself is really beautiful too, in the convent with lots of cloisters, arches and gardens. It’s just a really nice peaceful relaxing place to be, and out of the rain. There are traditional blue and white tiles depicting historical scenes, lovely colourful patterned tiles that reminded me of the Alhambra in Granada, right to more modern Azulejos with Mickey Mouse on them.
I spent a good morning in there before I left to collect my luggage and make my way to the train station. With me having a week off work it seemed silly flying back from Lisbon after three days when I still had another four days of holiday left. I worked out that I could get a train to Porto, 3 hours further north, close to the border with Spain, and then fly back to the UK direct from Porto to Manchester three days later. So that’s what I did. I’d recommend the train transfer between the two cities. The trains are really efficient. It’s just short of 3 hours on the fast train from Lisbon Oriente station. It is a direct train and only makes one other stop on the way. If you book early using the CP Portuguese national railway app you can get a first class ticket for just a few euros more than standard, so I did that and got a comfy reclining seat to read my book for 3 hours, a charging point and a tea trolley……what more can a girl want! I think the ticket was around 30 euros, which is much less than we would pay in the UK for a first class 3 hour train journey. While you’ve made the effort to get to Portugal, it’s definitely a good idea to see both cities.
I’ll tell you about Porto in a separate post when I’ve had time to sort my photos because there is so much to tell you about there too and it is very different to Lisbon. In fact, if I had to choose which I liked best out of the two, as much as I loved Lisbon, for me Porto won hands down. So I’ll be back soon to tell you about boats, bridges, more tiles, what has to be the best and prettiest bookshop in the world, how I inadvertently ended up back on the Camino, had more amazing food, saw the most bizarre baby Jesus I’ve ever seen, went on a little mini cruise down the Douro valley, drunk far too much alcohol, including that much port at a tasting that my lips and teeth turned purple, and how I fell in love with Benji (he’s a dog!). Adios for now………..or perhaps that should be Adeus!